Slow Grow Challenge Episode 12: We’re Halfway Through!

Checkpoint: Stage Two Milestone Reached

Here we are at the end of week 12, which means we've reached the Stage Two milestone and we're halfway through the Slow Grow challenge. Our four Team Mantic challengers have all been progressing at different speeds in the past 12 weeks, and have all had obstacles to overcome in one form or another. In today's blog, we'll check in and see how they've all done. Ideally, the goal was to have a 1000 point Kings of War Ambush army painted by this stage. How have our challengers measured up?

The Slow Grow Challenge Roadmap

Looking Ahead

It's been amazing to see all the new Kings of War armies that are coming to life out there in the community as part of this challenge. Please keep sharing your progress with us! As a reminder, you can do that in one of the following ways:

• Creating a hobby thread on the Kings of War Forum (kowforum.com) and including “Slow Grow 2026” in the title
• Posting updates on Facebook or Instagram and using the hashtag #kowslowgrow2026
• Emailing us at [email protected]
• Sharing your updates in the relevant threads on the Kings of War subreddit or the Mantic Fans Discord server

We already featured some community armies here on the blog after Stage One wrapped up (here and here), and we'll be doing the same again in the remaining stages of the challenge.

A quick heads-up - so far, we've been publishing one of these Slow Grow blog articles every single week. For the second half of the challenge, we'll be moving to a fortnightly posting schedule. So for Stage Three, you can expect to see Slow Grow blogs in weeks 14, 16, and 18.

Now, let's take a look at Team Mantic's progress!

Tobias - The Hobby Dynamo (Xirkaali)

TW: I'm really happy with how my army's been progressing. I think I've managed to find a nice balance, in terms of having a strong colour scheme so that my army stands out on the table, but also a painting method that doesn't take me too long. I could spend longer on each miniature and paint more of the detail - and at the start of the challenge, I was considering doing that. But fairly early on, I made a conscious choice to go for more of a "solid tabletop standard" approach, and to focus on getting my units done quickly, to a level that I'm satisfied with.

That has helped me stay on top of things - out of the four of us, I think I'm the one who's been best able to keep up with the pace. That's also a result of practice - I actually used to be a much slower painter, but in the past three years I've been working on building a regular painting habit, and improving my "hobby discipline", if you can call it that. I feel like I'm reaping the benefit of that now.

I've managed to hit the 1000-point goal - in fact, I've got slightly more than 1000 points painted. For an Ambush game, I'll probably run the Chakrams as regular Brotherhood of Yan, which should bring the list to just under 1000 points.

If I had any advice for people out there following along, it would very much be that "little and often" is the way to get an army done. I think I already said that before - but I'll say it again because it's true!

Regiment of Spearwardens

Regiment of Warriors

Regiment of Yan Chakrams

Troop of Wildfangs

Troop of Plainstalkers

Witch Cage

Witch Hunter

Tobias's Army So Far

Ross - The Fresh Recruit (Ogres)

RC: Having had to duck out of the challenge for quite a chunk of March and early April, I'm honestly happy to just to be back, and to have some paint on my miniatures. In fact, I've managed to get a basecoat and wash on everything in my Arokamorra Champion's Company box, which I'm quite proud of! Back at the start of the challenge, I said that one of my main goals was simply to take grey plastic and turn it into something that's colourful and feels alive - and I think I've made big strides towards achieving that.

Obviously I'm new to this hobby, so I'm very much still learning, but I'm enjoying the process, and I think that's really important. Having now laid down a solid base on my first set of Ogres, the next step will be adding some textured basing elements to help bring them alive even more. And I may try my hand at some highlighting!

I'm excited by the fact that I can now play Kings of War Champions with what I have - it'll be cool to get my Ogres on the tabletop! Being realistic, I'm not sure if I'll get a full 2000-point army done by the end of the challenge, but I'll certainly be aiming to add a few more units at least. Onwards!

Troop of Warriors

Troop of Boomers

Chariot

Arokamorra

Ross's Army So Far

Dan - The Lore-Led General (Xirkaali)

DM: I've really enjoyed the Slow Grow so far, and the soft "deadlines" at each stage have helped me to keep me on track and get each 500-point chunk finished. The models have turned out really nicely, despite a speed-oriented paint scheme, and I think the jungle bases and colour scheme are doing some heavy lifting on selling the overall theme/story! A highlight so far was converting the Lionsnarl Cavalry and Plainstalkers, to give a unified look across all my ranged options. I may have to add Xorxoi later in the same blue cloak...and what a miniature he is!

And the faction choice? It's been great to do something as fresh as the Xirkaali, and especially creating an original colour scheme/look for them. Yellow can be tricky, but with the Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic range it's come out very nicely and didn't require too many repetitive coats.

My army comes to 965 points without any magic items, so I'd say that counts as a success for the first two stages of the challenge! Next up, I'm really keen to paint the massive Gokluu dragon - so that will almost certainly form part of my next 500 points. After plenty of infantry units I'm feeling ready to tackle something bigger.

Regiment of Plainstalkers

Regiment of Lionsnarl Cavalry with Bows

Regiment of Warriors

Regiment of Wildfangs

Witch Hunter

Dan's Army So Far

Alex - The Reformed Perfectionist (Trident Realm)

AG: As readers may remember, I moved house during Stage One of the challenge, which really threw a spanner in the works! When we hit the Stage One milestone, I didn't have an awful lot to show for it, and I set myself the goal of catching up during Stage Two. How have I done? Well, I'm pleased to report that - after painting like a madman for the past few weeks - I've made some solid progress!

I've finished my Axel Tricklebrook Champions Company and, like Ross, I'm excited to play some Kings of War Champions in the near future. On top of that, I also managed to get two troops of Depth Horrors done, to get me closer to that 1000-point goal. In fact, if I were to run Crokker from Axel Tricklebrook's Company as a Riverguard Dambuster Sentinel (a Champion choice in the Trident Realm army list), I've got a legal Ambush list that comes to 875 points. So I didn't quite fully catch up, but I wasn't far off!

Hobby-wise, I'm happy with how the army is shaping up. As I've mentioned before, I like to be quite methodical in my approach. My reasoning is that, if I put the effort in upfront to figure out the colour scheme, the techniques I'll use, and what the step-by-step will be - plus paint a few miniatures as a trial run - then that preparation will make my life easier in the long run. I had a rocky start to the challenge, but now, halfway through, I'm beginning to see the benefit of that approach.

I'm especially happy with how the colour scheme is looking - I think the grey-ish greens go nicely with the orange as an accent colour. The Mantic studio Trident Realm army is very bright and vibrant and uses all sorts of different colours, which I love because it reflects the incredible diversity of aquatic life. When it comes to my own painting though, I tend to prefer using a narrower selection of colours, and I was curious to see how a more limited palette would look for the Trident Realm. It's different, but I think it works quite well.

In terms of what's next, I have the Trident Realm half of the Claws in the Sand 2-player starter set (that's where my Depth Horrors came from), so I'll most likely continue to work on the units from that box. I love the Placoderm miniatures, and will probably get started on those next!

Troop of Naiad Ensnarers

Troop of Riverguard

First Troop of Depth Horrors

Second Troop of Depth Horrors

Axel Tricklebrook

Crokker/Riverguard Dambuster Sentinel

Alex's Army So Far

That's a Wrap for Stage Two!

So there you have it, folks! Dan and Tobias have both successfully managed to get a 1000-point army done across the past 12 weeks. Ross and Alex didn't quite make it, but perhaps that's not surprising given the obstacles they've each faced. Importantly, they've both hit their stride in recent weeks and have ended Stage Two on a very positive note!

The Slow Grow challenge has been a lot of fun so far, and we hope that you're enjoying following along with it! We'll be back in a couple of weeks with another Slow Grow blog. Until then, happy painting and happy gaming!